UK Subsidy Control Insider

Introduction Although the subsidy control jurisdiction has been ‘live’ since January 2023, only one application has been issued under the Subsidy Control Act 2022, Durham Company Limited v Durham County Council, which was determined by a judgment dated 27 July 2023.2 There are no other applications pending before the Competition Appeal Tribunal at the time of writing (October 2023). Given […]

Readers will be aware that there have been two subsidy control cases before the Courts this year. The Divisional Court gave judgment in the Bulb litigation (R (British Gas Trading Ltd and others) v Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero [2023] EWHC 737 (Admin)) on 31 March 2023. My analysis of that decision, and its implications for […]

Introduction The UK subsidy control regime is a nascent policy area for public authorities to understand. The regime places obligations on public authorities to assess a subsidy or subsidy scheme to ensure that it is compliant with the subsidy control principles and other requirements. The Statutory Guidance explains the subsidy control principles and provides a four-part assessment framework to support […]

In July 2023, the European Union introduced a new competition law regime called the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) to address a longstanding regulatory gap. Whilst subsidies awarded by EU and EFTA Member States are tightly regulated on an ex-ante basis under EU State aid law,1 this is not the case for subsidies awarded by other countries. Indeed, it is […]

On 30 June 2023, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) published amendments to the Statutory Guidance for the UK’s Subsidy Control Regime, 2 providing further guidance on how to determine the value of a subsidy by calculating its Gross Cash Amount (GCA) or Gross Cash Equivalent Amount (GCE). Calculating the value of a subsidy is necessary to comply with […]

At the end of July, the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) handed down judgment in The Durham Company v Durham CC,1 its first (and so far only) judicial review application under the Subsidy Control Act 2022 (SCA22). The question decided: was there a subsidy decision? The only issue on the application was whether there was a subsidy decision at all: Durham […]

Introduction The implementation of the UK’s subsidy control regime has brought a number of new concepts for public authorities to grapple with. Amongst those changes are two new categories of subsidy: Subsidies or Schemes of Interest (SSoI), and Subsidies or Schemes of Particular Interest (SSoPI). The statutory guidance describes these as “subsidies which potentially pose a substantial risk of negative […]

We are proud to announce the creation of a new, free, bi-monthly newsletter that will report on the latest developments in UK Subsidy Control Law. Every edition of the Subsidy Control Insider will offer 2-4 concise articles. Get a quick but essential update on the main issues relating to Subsidy Control. The first issue of the SCI will be sent […]